Sri Ram Himalayan Institute of Medical Science Jolly Grant shows that it remains second to none in quality healthcare
The fundamental architecture of good governance in any society has a special space for quality of medical and health infrastructure apart from good education, housing and of course an ambience of an excellent law and order machinery. The coronavirus pandemic has badly exposed India’s health infrastructure, as people died of shortage of oxygen and ventilators even in the best hospitals in Delhi and other Metro cities.
Uttarakhand suffered heavily in terms of Covid-19 deaths, though the state boasts of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Rishikesh, which also catered for the patients of Uttar Pradesh. Delhi has always been the destination for all Indians who throng to the AIIMS and other hospitals like RML and Safdarjang until recently when several AIIMS like institutions were set up. However, considering the lack of focus in the management of these AIIMs, the health services in them are far from satisfactory.
Take the human resources development policy of recruitment of all group B and C posts, including the posts of multi task employees like helpers and drivers, etc., through a common entry examination conducted at the all-India level. This has created more problems than sorting out the manpower engagement. The Ministry of health should have identified a certain category of lower posts for which the entrance examination should have been conducted on the state basis where the AIIMS are situated.
The private hospitals infrastructures have proliferated all over India, but they are criticized for their avarice and fleecing people with a lot of unnecessary procedures they inflict upon the unsuspecting patients, who are like sitting ducks.
However, this writer has come across a hospital in Uttarakhand the functioning of which he has reviewed after assessing that the implementation of Covid-19 protocol by the state health department in the state was more in breach as the cases were being completely neglected by the Chief Medical Officer of Dehradun.
This writer became Covid positive on 16th August and only on 18th one doctor from Doon Medical College telephoned who was requested to follow the protocol but after that there was no contact and support not only in this case but several other cases. When the disease became serious, I had no alternative to choose from a private hospital which has a reputation of providing affordable health care to the people of this hilly state. I got admitted to the Sri Ram Himalayan Institute of Medical Science Jolly Grant which works on the line of AIIMS.
This institution was set up by Swami Ram in 1995 with the aim of providing ethically sound medical services. It admits 150 MBBS and 120 MD/MS students annually with a 1200-bedded Himalayan Hospital equipped with 950 hostel rooms and excellent faculty accommodation with all ultra-modern medical facilities being provided including four oxygen plants. The institute offers super specialty programs in Surgical Oncology, Cardiology, Neurosurgery and in Neurology, PhD programmes, Fellowship Programmes and Paramedical Programmes. The institution is adopting a competency based curriculum for under graduates and postgraduate departments.
The institution is set up in a 200-acre beautifully landscaped green area in the foothills of Himalaya and its clean and lean ambience gives this institution a beautiful look where the patients are treated in a caring manner and the treatment procedures are affordable and reasonably priced. In the midst of other private hospitals this place is an “oasis in desert” so to say and any one can visit here to see how silently its 3500 strong faculty and support staff is treating more than 5.5 lakh out patients and 60,000 in-house patients annually.
In any learning institute of higher education, the library is the key to judge its efficacy of the learning process. The library is open on all working days with access to the latest 19,000 books, 191 journals, and 1,671 e-journals. The institution has a state of the art auditorium, lecture theatres, labs and demonstration rooms. Considering the quality of faculty the National Medical Commission has recognized this institution to train medical faculty of 19 Medical Colleges of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. It has international research collaborations with nine Institutions like Rock stock University of Germany, IBC Denmark, Wisconsin University of USA and other AIIMS and every year more than 150 research papers are published in journals of repute.
The monthly bills amounting to Rs 17 crore are based on self-generated revenue and without any recourse to loans/grants, etc. It shows the objectives of Swami Ram in providing affordable and ethically defined medical services to the underprivileged sections of people by creating a self-sustained international standard health care for the people of Uttarakhand has been achieved. The hospital has been adjudged as first in the country for treating the highest number of patients under Ayushman scheme.
(The author is former Director-General in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. Views expressed are personal)
